Single disperser design for coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging

TLDR

The study introduces a single‑disperser spectral imager that uses compressed‑sensing theory to enable snapshot spectral imaging. An experimental prototype captures the spatial‑spectral data of a two‑ball scene under different illumination, and an iterative algorithm reconstructs the data cube. The system achieves an average spectral resolution of 3.6 nm per channel and its spectra closely match those obtained with a non‑imaging reference spectrometer.

Abstract

We present a single disperser spectral imager that exploits recent theoretical work in the area of compressed sensing to achieve snapshot spectral imaging. An experimental prototype is used to capture the spatiospectral information of a scene that consists of two balls illuminated by different light sources. An iterative algorithm is used to reconstruct the data cube. The average spectral resolution is 3.6 nm per spectral channel. The accuracy of the instrument is demonstrated by comparison of the spectra acquired with the proposed system with the spectra acquired by a nonimaging reference spectrometer.